Rick Sanchez is a fictional character from the American animated television series Rick and Morty, aired on Adult Swim. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, the creators of the series, he is based on Doc from Back to the Future, and is a genius alcoholic scientist who acts the show’s main protagonist alongside his grandson Morty. Known for his reckless, nihilistic behavior and his pessimistic nature, the character has received generally positive reception.

He is referred to as Rick Sanchez C-137 by the Ricks from other timelines, in reference to his original timeline, C-137. Like Morty, the character is voiced by Roiland.

Rick Sanchez C-137 is the father of Beth Smith, and the grandfather of Morty and Summer Smith. Aged 60 years old, he is said to have been away from the family for around fourteen years prior to the events of the show’s first episode, “Pilot”. He frequently travels on adventures through space and other planets and dimensions with his grandson Morty. Rick was confirmed by Justin Roiland to be pansexual.

Rick is portrayed as a genius; utilizing his mathematical and scientific prowess in conjunction with apathy and egotistical cynicsm, he emerges safely from any situation, regardless of the consequences of his self-preservation. In “The Ricks Must Be Crazy” Rick reveals that he powers his flying car with a battery that contains a miniature universe whose inhabitants unknowingly provide the required electricity. Morty condemns this system as “slavery with extra steps.” When the inhabitants cease providing Rick with energy to power his car, as they have created a miniature universe for their own usage, Rick destroys their miniature universe, killing everyone inside. He does not demonstrate remorse for his action, but satisfaction when his original universe consequently begins powering his vehicle once again. Rick’s intelligence is portrayed to transcend that of metaphyiscal beings, as demonstrated in the episode “Something Ricked This Way Comes”, where he outsmarts Satan.

Rick displays his pessimistic mentality in the episode “Rick Potion #9”, in which he rejects the emotional aspects of love, claiming that it is “a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed.” When Rick and Morty irreversibly mutate all humans on Earth except for their family members, they abandon their original dimension, Dimension C-137 (and their family in that dimension), for a new one. Rick locates a universe in which the alternate version of himself has undone the damage inflicted by the love potion, but where the new dimension’s Rick and Morty have been killed, allowing the C-137 Rick and Morty to take their place. Despite Morty’s trauma concerning this knowledge, Rick is nonchalant about moving to the new dimension.

In the episode “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind”, after numerous Ricks in alternate dimensions are murdered, the Trans-Dimensional Council of Ricks accuses Rick C-137 and orders for him to be arrested. Rick C-137 finds himself captured by an “evil” Rick, but is saved by a legion of alternate-dimension Mortys led by Morty C-137.

In the first episode of the second season, “A Rickle in Time”, Rick nearly sacrifices himself to save Morty, but saves his own life when he realizes that doing so is possible. In the episode “Get Schwifty”, it is revealed that Rick was once in a rock band called the Flesh Curtains, alongside Birdperson and Squanchy. In the episode “Big Trouble in Little Sanchez”, Rick transfers his consciousness into a younger clone of himself, whom he calls “Tiny Rick”. He soon becomes anguished in his new body, and manages to return to his older true form, and murders a line of other clones he produced. In the second season’s finale, “The Wedding Squanchers”, Rick and his family attend Birdperson’s wedding, where Birdperson is betrayed and killed by his bride Tammy, a double agent for the Galactic Federation. The family is forced to inhabit an unusually small yet Earth-like planet, as they cannot return to Earth due to Rick’s status as a wanted criminal. Rick turns himself in to the Federation to allow his family to return home, and is incarcerated on a prison planet under the charges of having committed “everything”.

Rick’s catchphrase is “Wubba Lubba Dub-Dub”, first introduced in the episode “Meeseeks and Destroy”. In Birdperson’s native language, the catchphrase translates to “I am in great pain, please help me”.

It is often hinted that Rick has been hopping dimensions so much more than anyone thinks to the point of “abandoning and destroying everything” numerous times to the point of getting used to it. In “Close Rick-counters or the Rick Kind” and “Get Schwifty” Rick can be seen holding and caressing a baby Morty when he was meant to still be missing long before Morty was even born. There has been much speculation surrounding this discrepency. One fan theory suggest that “evil” Morty is the true “Morty C-137.” This theory, however, has been neither explicitely supported by canonical events, nor confirmed by the writers.

The Waffen-SS (German pronunciation:[ˈvafən.ɛs.ɛs], Armed SS) was the armed wing of the Nazi Party’s SS organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and un-occupied lands.

The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the Heer (regular army), Ordnungspolizei (uniformed police) and other security units. Prior to the war, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt (SS operational command office) beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the High Command of the Armed Forces (OKW), with some units being subordinated to Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS (Command Staff Reichsführer-SS) directly under Himmler’s control.

Initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, membership was only open to people of Germanic origin (so-called Aryan ancestry). The rules were partially relaxed in 1940, and later the formation of units composed largely or solely of foreign volunteers and conscripts was authorised. These SS units were made up of men mainly from among the nationals of Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite relaxation of the rules, the Waffen-SS was still based on the racist ideology of Nazism, and ethnic Poles (who were viewed as subhumans) were barred specifically from the formations.

At the post-war Nuremberg trials the Waffen-SS was judged to be a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party and involvement in numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity. Former Waffen-SS members were denied many of the rights afforded to the military veterans. An exception was made for Waffen-SS conscripts, who were exempted because they were not volunteers. About a third of the total membership were conscripts.

The origins of the Waffen-SS can be traced back to the selection of a group of 120 SS men in March 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the Sonderkommando Berlin. By November 1933 the formation had 800 men, and at a commemorative ceremony in Munich for the tenth anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch the regiment swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler. The oaths pledged were “Pledging loyalty to him alone” and “Obedience unto death”. The formation was given the title Leibstandarte (Bodyguard Regiment) Adolf Hitler (LAH). On 13 April 1934, by order of Himmler, the regiment became known as the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH).

The Leibstandarte demonstrated their loyalty to Hitler in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political killings and the purge of the Sturmabteilung (SA). Led by one of Hitler’s oldest comrades, Ernst Röhm, the SA was seen as a threat by Hitler to his newly gained political power. Hitler also wanted to conciliate leaders of the Reichswehr and conservatives of the country, people whose support Hitler needed to solidify his position. When Hitler decided to act against the SA, the SS was put in charge of eliminating Röhm and the other high-ranking SA officers. The Night of the Long Knives occurred between 30 June and 2 July 1934 and saw the killing of up to 200 people. This included almost the entire SA leadership, effectively ending its power. This action was largely carried out by SS personnel (including the Leibstandarte), and the Gestapo.

In September 1934, Hitler authorized the formation of the military wing of the Nazi Party and approved the formation of the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS-VT), a special service troop under Hitler’s overall command. The SS-VT had to depend on the German Army for its supply of weapons and military training, and they had control of the recruiting system through local draft boards responsible for assigning conscripts to the different branches of the Wehrmacht to meet quotas set by the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW in German). The SS was given the lowest priority for recruits.

Even with the difficulties presented by the quota system, Heinrich Himmler formed two new SS regiments, the SS Germania and SS Deutschland, which together with the Leibstandarte and a communications unit made up the SS-VT. At the same time Himmler established the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz and SS-Junkerschule Braunschweig for military training of SS officers. Both schools used regular army training methods and mainly used former army officers as instructors.

Himmler initially in 1934 set stringent requirements for recruits. They were to be German nationals who could prove their Aryan ancestry back to 1800, unmarried, and without a criminal record. A four-year commitment was required for the SS-VT and LSSAH. Recruits had to be between the ages of 17 and 23, at least 1.74 metres (5 ft 9 in) tall (1.78 metres (5 ft 10 in) for the LSSAH). Concentration camp guards had to make a one-year commitment, be between the ages of 16 and 23, and at least 1.72 metres (5 ft 8 in) tall. All recruits were required to have no dental fillings, 20/20 eyesight and provide a medical certificate. By 1938 the height restrictions were relaxed, up to six dental fillings were permitted, and eyeglasses for astigmatism and mild vision correction were allowed. Once the war commenced, the physical requirements were no longer strictly enforced, and essentially any recruit who could pass a basic medical exam was considered for service. Members of the SS could be of any religion except Judaism (Jewish), but atheists were not allowed according to Himmler in 1937.

The officers of the SS were almost all of lower middle-class or working-class origin, who would have not been considered for commissioning in the old German Army. In the SS they could take part in the gentlemanly rituals of the mess. Fritz Langanke was the son of a miner. Major Heinrich Wulf, commander of the Das Reich reconnaissance battalion, was the son of a North German worker who died as a conscript in Flanders in 1917. Major Gunther-Eberhardt Wisliceny the commander of the Deutschland Panzergrenadier regiment was described as looking like a tall, stiff Prussian Junker, but had been a miner in Silesia for three years. Major Otto Weidinger was the son of a post office worker, and he was rejected by both the army and the police before acceptance into the SS. But some were from the old elite, like Otto Pohl (commander of a tank unit); his father, an officer in the navy, joined Hitler in the 1920s and became a SS General.

In 1936, Himmler selected former Lieutenant General Paul Hausser to be Inspector of the SS-VT with the rank of Brigadefuhrer. Hausser worked to transform the SS-VT into a credible military force that was a match for the regular army.

On 17 August 1938, Hitler declared that the SS-VT would have a role in domestic as well as foreign affairs, which transformed this growing armed force into the rival that the army had feared. He decreed that service in the SS-VT qualified to fulfill military service obligations, although service in the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV) would not. Some units of the SS-TV would, in the case of war, be used as reserves for the SS-VT, which did not have its own reserves. For all its training, the SS-VT was untested in combat. In 1938, a battalion of the Leibstandarte was chosen to accompany the army troops in occupying Austria during the Anschluss, and the three regiments of the SS-VT participated in the occupation of the Sudetenland that October. In both actions no resistance was met.

Recruiting of ethnic Germans from other countries began in April 1940, and units consisting of non-Germanic recruits were formed beginning in 1942. Non-Germanic units were not considered to be part of the SS, which still maintained its racial criteria, but rather were considered to be foreign nationals serving under the command of the SS.

Creepypastas are horror-related legends or images that have been copy-and-pasted around the Internet. These Internet entries are often brief, user-generated, paranormal stories intended to scare readers. They include gruesome tales of murder, suicide, and otherworldly occurrences. According to Time magazine, the genre had its peak audience in 2010 when it was covered by The New York Times.

In the mainstream media, creepypastas relating to the fictitious Slender Man character came to public attention after the 2014 “Slender Man stabbing”, in which a twelve-year-old girl from Waukesha, Wisconsin, was stabbed by two of her friends; the perpetrators claimed they “wanted to prove the [Slender Man] skeptics” wrong. After the murder attempt, some creepypasta website administrators made statements reminding readers of the “line between fiction and reality”.

Other notable creepypasta characters and stories include Jeff the Killer, Ted the Caver, and Psychosis. In May 2015, Machinima Inc. announced plans for a live action web series curated by Clive Barker, titled Clive Barker’s Creepy Pasta.

The term is a portmanteau of the words “creepy” and “copypasta”, a word used on 4chan in 2006 to describe viral copy-and-pasted text.

Slender Man

Slender Man is a thin, tall man with no distinguishable facial features that wears a black suit, and is said to stalk, and traumatize people. The character originated in a 2009 SomethingAwful Photoshop competition, and creepypastas were written shortly afterward. According to most stories, he targets children. The legend also caused a controversy with the Slender Man stabbing in 2014.

Jeff the Killer

Jeff the Killer is a story accompanied by an image of the character. The story says that a teenager named Jeff was severely injured in an incident of bullying that caused his face to become bleached. Following the incident and having his bandages removed, Jeff realized he liked to harm people, went insane, and cut a smile into his cheeks and burned off his eyelids after returning home from the hospital. After murdering his parents and brother, he is now a serial killer who sneaks into houses at night and whispers “go to sleep” before murdering his victims. In 2013, posters at the imageboard website 4chan stated that the Jeff the Killer image was an extensively edited picture of a girl who committed suicide in the fall of 2008. A different version exists on the creepypasta wiki.

Ted the Caver

Ted the Caver began as an Angelfire website in early 2001 that documented the adventures of a man and his friends as they explored a local cave. The story is in the format of a series of blog posts. As the explorers move further into the cave, strange hieroglyphs and winds are encountered. In a final blog post, Ted writes that he and his companions would be bringing a gun into the cave after experiencing a series of nightmares and hallucinations. The blog has not been updated since the final post. In 2005, the author of Ted the Caver revealed that it was an original work of fiction partially inspired by true events.

In 2013, an independent film adaptation of the story was released, called Living Dark: the Story of Ted the Cave

The Holocaust (from the Greek ὁλόκαυστοςholókaustos: hólos, “whole” and kaustós, “burnt”), also referred to as the Shoah (Hebrew: השואה, HaShoah, “the catastrophe”), was a genocide in which some six million European Jews were killed by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, and the World War II collaborators with the Nazis. The victims included 1.5 million children, and represented about two-thirds of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe. A broader definition of the Holocaust includes non-Jewish victims of the Nazi campaign of mass murder, based on biological factors, such as the Romani, and the Aktion T4 patients who were mentally and physically disabled.

From 1941 to 1945, Jews were systematically murdered in the deadliest genocide in history, which was part of a broader aggregate of acts of oppression and killings of various ethnic and political groups in Europe. Under the coordination of the SS, with directions from the highest leadership of the Nazi Party, every arm of Germany’s bureaucracy was involved in the logistics and the carrying out of the mass murder. Killings took place throughout German-occupied Europe, as well as within Nazi Germany, and across all territories controlled by its allies. Other victims of Nazi crimes included ethnic Poles and other Slavs, Soviet citizens and Soviet POWs, communists, homosexuals, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others. Some 42,500 detention facilities were utilized in the concentration of victims for the purpose of gross violations of human rights. Over 200,000 people are estimated to have been Holocaust perpetrators.

The persecution was carried out in stages, culminating in the policy of extermination of European Jews termed the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” (die Endlösung der Judenfrage). Following Hitler’s rise to power, the German government passed laws to exclude Jews from civil society, most prominently the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. Starting in 1933 the Nazis began to establish a network of concentration camps. After the outbreak of war in 1939 both German and foreign Jews were herded into wartime ghettos. In 1941, as Germany began to conquer new territory in the East, all anti-Jewish measures radicalized. Specialized paramilitary units called Einsatzgruppen murdered around two million Jews in mass shootings actions in less than a year. By mid-1942, victims were being regularly transported by freight trains to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, most were systematically killed in gas chambers. This continued until the end of World War II in Europe in April–May 1945.

Jewish armed resistance was limited. The most notable exception was the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, when thousands of poorly-armed Jewish fighters held the Waffen-SS at bay for four weeks. An estimated 20,000–30,000 Jewish partisans actively fought against the Nazis and their collaborators in Eastern Europe. French Jews took part in the French Resistance, which conducted a guerilla campaign against the Nazis and Vichy French authorities. Over a hundred armed Jewish uprisings took place.

The use of extermination camps (also called “death camps”) equipped with gas chambers for the systematic mass extermination of peoples was an unprecedented feature of the Holocaust. These were established at Auschwitz, Belzec, Chełmno, Jasenovac, Majdanek, Maly Trostenets, Sobibór, and Treblinka. They were built for the systematic purpose of killing millions, primarily by gassing, but also by execution and extreme work under starvation conditions. Stationary facilities built for the purpose of mass extermination resulted from earlier Nazi experimentation with poison gas during the secret Action T4 euthanasia programme against mental patients.

Jihad (English pronunciation:/dʒɪˈhɑːd/; Arabic: جهاد‎‎ jihād[dʒɪˈhaːd]) is an Arabic word which literally means striving or struggling, especially with a praiseworthy aim. It can have many shades of meaning in an Islamic context, such as struggle against one’s evil inclinations, or efforts toward the moral betterment of society. In classical Islamic law, the term refers to armed struggle against unbelievers, while modernist Islamic scholars generally equate military jihad with defensive warfare. In Sufi and pious circles, spiritual and moral jihad has been traditionally emphasized under the name of greater jihad. The term has gained additional attention in recent decades through its use by terrorist groups.

The word jihad appears frequently in the Quran with and without military connotations, often in the idiomatic expression “striving in the path of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)“.Islamic jurists and other ulema of the classical era understood the obligation of jihad predominantly in a military sense. They developed an elaborate set of rules pertaining to jihad, including prohibitions on harming those who do not engage in combat. In the modern era, the notion of jihad has lost its jurisprudential relevance and instead gave rise to an ideological and political discourse. While modernist Islamic scholars have emphasized defensive and non-military aspects of jihad, some Islamists have advanced aggressive interpretations that go beyond the classical theory.

Jihad is classified into inner (“greater”) jihad, which involves a struggle against one’s own base impulses, and external (“lesser”) jihad, which is further subdivided into jihad of the pen/tongue (debate or persuasion) and jihad of the sword. Most Western writers consider external jihad to have primacy over inner jihad in the Islamic tradition, while much of contemporary Muslim opinion favors the opposite view. Gallup analysis of a large survey reveals considerable nuance in the conceptions of jihad held by Muslims around the world.

Jihad is sometimes referred to as the sixth pillar of Islam, though this designation is not commonly recognized. In Twelver Shi’a Islam jihad is one of the ten Practices of the Religion. A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid (plural mujahideen). The term jihad is often rendered in English as “Holy War”, although this translation is controversial.

In Modern Standard Arabic, the term jihad is used for a struggle for causes, both religious and secular. The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines the term as “fight, battle; jihad, holy war (against the infidels, as a religious duty)”. Nonetheless, it is usually used in the religious sense and its beginnings are traced back to the Qur’an and words and actions of Muhammad. In the Qur’an and in later Muslim usage, jihad is commonly followed by the expression fi sabil illah, “in the path of God.”Muhammad Abdel-Haleem states that it indicates “the way of truth and justice, including all the teachings it gives on the justifications and the conditions for the conduct of war and peace.” It is sometimes used without religious connotation, with a meaning similar to the English word “crusade” (as in “a crusade against drugs”).

Sharia, Sharia law, or Islamic law (Arabic: شريعة‎‎ (IPA: [ʃaˈriːʕa])) is the religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God’s divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its scholarly interpretations. The manner of its application in modern times has been a subject of dispute between Muslim traditionalists and reformists.

Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence recognizes four sources of sharia: the Quran, sunnah (authentic hadith), qiyas (analogical reasoning), and ijma (juridical consensus). Different legal schools—of which the most prominent are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali and Jafari—developed methodologies for deriving sharia rulings from scriptural sources using a process known as ijtihad. Traditional jurisprudence distinguishes two principal branches of law, ʿibādāt (rituals) and muʿāmalāt (social relations), which together comprise a wide range of topics. Its rulings assign actions to one of five categories: mandatory, recommended, permitted, abhorred, and prohibited. Thus, some areas of sharia overlap with the Western notion of law while others correspond more broadly to living life in accordance with God’s will.

Historically, sharia was interpreted by independent jurists (muftis). Their legal opinions (fatwas) were taken into account by ruler-appointed judges who presided over qāḍī’s courts, and by maẓālim courts, which were controlled by the ruler’s council and administered criminal law. Ottoman rulers achieved additional control over the legal system by promulgating their own legal code (qanun) and turning muftis into state employees. Non-Muslim (dhimmi) communities had legal autonomy, except in cases of interconfessional disputes, which fell under jurisdiction of qadi’s courts.

In the modern era, sharia-based criminal laws were widely replaced by statutes inspired by European models. Judicial procedures and legal education in the Muslim world were likewise brought in line with European practice. While the constitutions of most Muslim-majority states contain references to sharia, its classical rules were largely retained only in personal status (family) laws. Legislative bodies which codified these laws sought to modernize them without abandoning their foundations in traditional jurisprudence. The Islamic revival of the late 20th century brought along calls by Islamist movements for full implementation of sharia, including reinstatement of hudud corporal punishments, such as stoning. In some cases, this resulted in traditionalist legal reform, while other countries witnessed juridical reinterpretation of sharia advocated by progressive reformers.

The role of sharia has become a contested topic around the world. Attempts to impose it on non-Muslims have caused intercommunal violence in Nigeria and may have contributed to the breakup of Sudan. Some Muslim-minority countries in Asia (such as Israel), Africa and Europe recognize the use of sharia-based family laws for their Muslim populations. There are ongoing debates as to whether sharia is compatible with secular forms of government, human rights, freedom of thought, and women’s rights.

Most Muslim-majority countries incorporate sharia at some level in their legal framework, with many calling it the highest law or the source of law of the land in their constitution. Most use sharia for personal law (marriage, divorce, domestic violence, child support, family law, inheritance and such matters). Elements of sharia are present, to varying extents, in the criminal justice system of many Muslim-majority countries.Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Brunei, Qatar, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan and Mauritania apply the code predominantly or entirely while it applies in some parts of Indonesia.

Most Muslim-majority countries with sharia-prescribed hudud punishments in their legal code do not prescribe it routinely and use other punishments instead. The harshest sharia penalties such as stoning, beheading and the death penalty are enforced with varying levels of consistency.

Since the 1970s, most Muslim-majority countries have faced vociferous demands from their religious groups and political parties for immediate adoption of sharia as the sole, or at least primary, legal framework. Some moderates and liberal scholars within these Muslim countries have argued for limited expansion of sharia.

With the growing Muslim immigrant communities in Europe, there have been reports in some media of “no-go zones” being established where sharia law reigns supreme. However, there is no evidence of the existence of “no-go zones”, and these allegations are sourced from anti-immigrant groups falsely equating low-income neighborhoods predominantly inhabited by immigrants as “no-go zones”.

In England, the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal makes use of sharia family law to settle disputes, and this limited adoption of sharia is controversial.

Sharia or sharia law is the basic Islamic religious law derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the opinions and life example of Muhammad (Hadith and Sunnah) which are the primary sources of sharia. For topics and issues not directly addressed in these primary sources, sharia is derived. The derivation differs between the various sects of Islam (Sunni and Shia are the majority), and various jurisprudence schools such as Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali and Jafari. The sharia in these schools is derived hierarchically using one or more of the following guidelines: Ijma (usually the consensus of Muhammad’s companions), Qiyas (analogy derived from the primary sources), Istihsan (ruling that serves the interest of Islam in the discretion of Islamic jurists) and Urf (customs). Sharia is a significant source of legislation in various Muslim countries. Some apply all or a majority of the sharia, and these include Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen and Mauritania. In these countries, sharia-prescribed punishments such as beheading, flogging and stoning continue to be practiced judicially or extrajudicially. The introduction of sharia is a longstanding goal for Islamist movements globally, but attempts to impose sharia have been accompanied by controversy, violence, and even warfare. The differences between sharia and secular law have led to an ongoing controversy as to whether sharia is compatible with secular forms of government, human rights, freedom of thought, and women’s rights.

The first military rulings were formulated during the first hundred years after Muhammad established an Islamic state in Medina. These rulings evolved in accordance with the interpretations of the Quran (the Muslim Holy scriptures) and Hadith (the recorded traditions of Muhammad). The key themes in these rulings were the justness of war, and the injunction to jihad. The rulings do not cover feuds and armed conflicts in general.

The millennium of Muslim conquests could be classified, technically, as “religious war”, however the applicability of the term has been questioned. The reason is that the very notion of a “religious war” as opposed to a “secular war” is the result of the Western concept of the separation of Church and State. The division between Church and State is currently viewed within the Islamic world from a perspective which differs from the perspective of the Western world on this governmental principle.

Some have pointed out that the current Western view of the need for a clear separation between Church and State was only first legislated into effect after 18 centuries of Christianity in the Western world. While some majority Muslim governments such as Turkey and many of the majority Muslim former Soviet republics have officially attempted to incorporate this principal of such a separation of powers into their governments, the concept within the Muslim world yet remains somewhat in a state of ongoing evolution and flux.

Islam has never had any officially recognized tradition of pacifism, and throughout its history warfare has been an integral part of the Islamic theological system. Since the time of Muhammad, Islam has considered warfare to be a legitimate expression of religious faith, and has accepted its use for the defense of Islam. While the use of warfare for the propagation and dissemination of Islam is forbidden, still during approximately the first 1,000 years of its existence, the use of warfare by Muslim majority governments often resulted in the defacto propagation of Islam.

While the early spread of Islam was often borne on the back of military conquest, within Christianity its early spread was often a matter of political expediency. The minority Sufi movement within Islam, which includes certain pacifist elements, has often been officially “tolerated” by many Muslim majority governments. Additionally, some notable Muslim clerics, such as Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan have developed alternative non-violent Muslim theologies. Some hold that the formal juristic definition of war in Islam constitutes an irrevokable and permanent link within Islam between the political and religious justifications for war. The Quranic concept of Jihad includes aspects of both a physical and an internal struggle.

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